Hemingway to Havana: Mixing Classic Rum Cocktails 🍸

Description

You've never seen rum like this! In this Sesh, author, spirits historian, and rum fiend Brian D. Hoefling will expand your repertoire of rum cocktails with bona fide classics that go way beyond the Daiquiri. With shades of Cuba and Ernest Hemingway, we'll explore the rum palate by matching it with everything from grapefruit to chocolate to wine.

This Sesh will take place at the Kimpton Marlowe Hotel's Lobby Bar: a high-end yet relaxed and beautiful cocktail bar in Cambridge. This is not a just demo. This is a Sesh. Get up close and personal with rum -- work with actual cocktail shakers and mix your own drinks from scratch.

Did we mention light bites/food pairings are included?

Brian will demonstrate how to make three cocktails, and after each demonstration you will be handed a shaker to make your own. The recipes will give you a foundational understanding of rum in three different cocktail styles: the sour, citrus-driven type (the same style as the Whiskey Sour or the Jack Rose); the aromatic, fortified wine-driven type (much like the Manhattan, the Martini, and their ilk); and the advanced school that incorporates both (a la the Clover Club, the Twentieth Century, and the Corpse Reviver #2).

Here’s what you’ll be learning to make:

• Hemingway Daiquiri: An evolution of the venerable Daiquiri, invented at the famous Havana bar El Floridita and eventually renamed after its most famous patron.

• El Presidente: Another Havana classic, and the scion of the rum-and-vermouth cocktail family. Famously offered to Calvin Coolidge by Cuban President Gerardo Machado (he declined).

• El Floridita: Not as famous as its namesake bar and frequently confused with the Floridita Daiquiri until the latter changed its name to “Hemingway" (see above); yet another delicious expression of Cuba’s cocktail tradition and one of the few drinks to pair lime juice with sweet vermouth.

All three cocktails will feature Privateer Silver, a classic New England-style light rum made right here in Massachusetts.

Questions? Please log in or sign up to The Boston Calendar and message your host, Brian.

A fun evening! There was great energy with the group at this Sesh. My husband and I attended together. We are already fairly knowledgeable about cocktails, and still learned at this event. We have made one of the drinks we learned at home already (Hemingway Daiquiri) - it was delicious!